Returned from Vancouver

Ahhh... a great few days off and away from the every day grind of AirSprint.

I had 5 days off in Vancouver, after I got stuck pulling a 6 day work week and had to switch my plans and plane tickets for my return. What did I do you ask? Well.....

Day 1 (Sunday)
I've just finished a 12hr night shift and after getting dropped off at the airport I await my Westjet flight home at 8am. The flight was completely empty with only about 16 passengers on board. We made it to Vancouver in good time. My folks picked me up from the airport and we went home. I was greated by Apache (our jack russell terrier) and he seemed not to care too much that I was home and was more interested in the treats my dad had leftover in his coat pocket. I retired to the guestroom to have a "nap" so that I'd at least be functional for the day. After a couple of hours I awoke VERY groggy and went for lunch with John and Cindy. Japanese, where I had the usual (Chicken Teri Don)... I mean, what the hell else am I going to have? Then it was home to relax for a bit and then dinner with the family at Earls. I was having a very hard time trying to maintain conciousness. After dinner I connected with the Poker crew and we met up at Justin's place for some good 'ol fashioned pokering! It was great to be back at the ever shedding green felt playing the cards like old times. Much of the night was a blur as I decided to drink a few glasses of rye and gingerale/coke. I distincly recall Garmy walking away with a large sum of cash, but more than anything I recall Sy and I's game after everyone else had left. 10 bucks was slapped down in a winner take all battle royale. Do I really have to say who won? I mean.. he had no chance! =D Then it was home to sleep, and I needed it.

Day 2 (Monday)
I'm awakened early by my Dad barging in the door saying that it's my Visa company calling. I had just ordered a laptop at Futureshop online and they had just declined Futureshop's verification process because my address information didn't match what was on file! Freaking VISA! I sorted that mess out quickly and got a hold of Futureshop and made sure they got things underway again. The rest of the day was spent being lazy and trying to relax as much as possible. Later that night was dinner with John and Cindy at the Olive Garden in Langley. Mmmm... Ravioli de Portebella... good stuff. And a shared bottle of Robert Mondavi Private Selection Red, very good stuff! I was soooo tired though I fell asleep on the drive home as Cindy tried to apparently kill us with her interesting night driving techniques. =D

Day 3 (Tuesday)
I get up in time to go and meet up with my roomate Mike who has just flown into Vancouver on a layover. I thought since everyone I know is out at work and busy that I would go and show him around Richmond. Give him a true tour of the joint. I took him out for his first Bubble Tea at Richmond Public Market, and then we went to RiverRock Casino to look around. He then got a phone call from work saying that he was flying home that day instead of laying over and so back to the airport we went. Later that night I met up with a guy off of the Subaru message forums that I frequent as he had agreed to buy my stock WRX radio I had posted for sale. We met in kits in a back alley, it really did feel like a drug deal. Why was I in Kits? Well I was visiting my oldest friend Ian! We went out for dinner at the Frog and Firkin and we each had the standard Frog and Firkin staple beverage "the big Hoeegarden" A 50fl oz. massive glass of Belgium wheat beer! Mmmmm.. dinner was great and then we walked back to Ian's place so that I could see his new tv. Now, when Ian told me that he got a new TV, I'm thinking it was a 27" tv. Not quite. The bugger got himself a nice Sony 46" widescreen HDTV!!! Great TV! I'm envious. When it was delivered though Ian hadn't finished constructing the tv stand, so it was just sitting on the floor. He and I then gracefully picked up the heavy monster and placed it gingerly on the stand. What a machine. We watched some American Idol and then it was time for me to head home. I arrived home and was quite tired. I told my mom I was going to take a nap, but I never woke up from my nap and slept through until 8am. That was too early to be waking up but I couldn't stay in bed any longer.

Day 4 (Wednesday)
I watched Elf in the morning and flipped through the tv channels for a good couple of hours. I was taking in as much of that bigscreen as I could! Oh how I miss it so. In the early afternoon I headed off to Boundary Bay Airport to go and surprise my previous employers and see how things were going there. I walked into the office and was quite amazed. A lot of new furniture and nice equipment. Of course after I leave! I chatted it up with my old boss for a good hour and met his replacement. He felt it was time to move on and a new company has recently taken over at the airport. He seems ok with the change and feels it will be good to get out and try something else. I also chatted with our Operations Manager at the Airport for about an hour and got the updates on what's being going on since I've left. While chatting I also saw both of my old planes taxi by: The Eye In the Sky and the News1130/JackFM traffic planes. Ahhh, memories. I headed back into Richmond and met up with a family friend who was kind enough to burn me a bunch of copies of games and programs to be used with my new laptop. Then it was home for dinner and then I met up with Justin and Marcel at RiverRock Casino for some POKER!

******POKER STORY********
So after scoping out the competitoin Justin and I were the only ones to play. We opted for the only No Limit game that was playing ($3/$6 No Limit Texas Hold 'em). We each bought in for $300 as the minimum buy in was $100 and the max was $500. The table was pretty much full and there were ppl with money sitting there. Chip stacks ranged from $100 to $700. I was seated to the right of Justin. My 3rd hand I scored the best possible starting hand in Hold 'em Poker (Pocket Rockets: Ace Ace) I bet it up to $40 and everyone folded!!! I was a little dissapointed, but hey, I mdae money off of it! $9! The very next hand i'm holding two 8's which is pretty decent. I bet it up to $20 and the only person to freaking do anything with that is Ho, who immediatly raises to $40 and I wasn't willing to call that and everyone else folded, so he stole my $20 and yes, I am sore about that Ho! I didn't really get the opportunity to play many hands, or was pushed out of pots too often. I was getting great hands that turned to crap after "the flop". In one round around the table, I had AK suited, AQ suited and AJ suited. All did jack all for me. After just a little more than an hour of play it was time to go. I left the table -$180, and Justin after making his pocket rockets work well left at +$46. Marcel had left before we even really got to start playing and John had come right when we started and he watched this all unfold. Thanks your support Ma! Afterwards we headed off to Delia's for a little gathering where everyone dispersed rather quickly as it was late at the time.

Day 5 (Thursday)
Last day at home started with me getting a decent sleep and then after breakfast and a little TV time, I joined my Dad in the garage to sort thru a bunch of boxes they had packed up after I moved out in July. Essentially making two piles: Keep and Toss. That took up a lot of time and then it was pretty much time to pack to go home! After I was all ready to go back to Calgary it was off to meet up with some friends for a farewell coffee. But after reviewing my Westjet Itinerary I realized I had more time afterall. Oops. =D So coffee turned into a meeting at Ricky's for a dinner where I never heard the end of my little mistake, as some ppl had already gone to the airport to see me off! We had a quick and memorable little dinner then it was off to airport where I raced to make my flight. Got there in time thanks to Cindy's crazy driving. SLOW DOWN! Checked in and got molested at security, from what I gathered, they were being reviewed that day and were making everyone go through the full nine yards. I had my belt, shoes and every metal object removed and going through the metal detector... what a gong show. Newho, raced to the gate and made the plane. We were flying back on another empty flight, but this was one of Westjet's new 737-700's with leather seats and tv's in the back of every headrest with live satelite tv! The only downside is that they only turn the tv's on when climbing up through 18,000' and they go off again on the decsent. On a trip to Toronto this would be great. But on a trip to Calgary, we got about 15mins of TV time! Oh well. Bumpy ride back into Calgary and then it was back home, where I stayed up as long as I could to prepare for my night shift the next day.

That brings us up to date. Here I am during my night shift. It snowed quite a bit today. Ahhh Calgary. What a welcome home.

Well, hope you enjoyed reading that novel. If any of you actually stuck it out this long and are reading this. Congrats!

It only took me... eeek.. 25mins to type that out... holy cow. Alright. I've got lotsa work to get back to.